Summer Internship Program - Alumni

The Kellogg Summer Internship Program began connecting Notre Dame students to communities across the globe in 1986. Since then, over 300 students have contributed to international organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Many former interns have gone on to graduate studies in international issues as well as careers abroad.

By sending our students to contribute to and become active participants in communities throughout the world, the Institute hopes to foster a deeper understanding of international issues in our interns that they will carry with them into their future endeavors. Countless participants in the Summer Internship Program are using their experiences to inform their current work in such fields as international relations, education, medicine, law, government, and immigration.

See where our alumni are today.

Read about an alumna below:

Read about other alumni here.

Lisa FloranLisa Floran, Class of 2009

Lisa Floran took an unconventional path to her current position serving with the Peace Corps in Senegal, but one that, in hindsight, made perfect sense.

While an undergraduate student at Notre Dame, Floran interned with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Jinja, Uganda in the office of a small women’s rights NGO.  She had initially applied for an internship in India, but found that when the Kellogg institute offered her the position in Uganda, she could not say no, a decision that has affected all of her professional pursuits since.

After graduation, Floran worked in Chicago as the program coordinator for a youth empowerment program, going on to intern in the education department of a local theater department.  In addition to interning, Floran worked as a part-time nanny and volunteered as an English as a Second Language teacher.   In these varied positions, Floran notes that it was her experience with FSD that made her the most attractive potential employee.  Through her Kellogg internship she gained valuable experience in education, demonstrated organizational capacity, and showed cross-cultural abilities.

Her internship in Uganda most directly led to her current position in the Peace Corps.  Floran says, “When applying to the Peace Corps, I found myself recounting stories from Uganda in the application, interview, and essays I was asked to write.” 

The application process, where her Kellogg experience was so central, secured her a post as a Preventative Health Educator working with an NGO named Plan to develop a Life Skills curriculum.  This curriculum is designed for youth who have dropped out of school and covers critical thinking skills, healthy relationships, reproductive issues, and good decision-making.  In addition, Floran teaches English, health, and culture classes and is planning a camp for middle school girls.

More than anything, Floran’s Kellogg internship taught her spontaneity.  She cites her seemingly illogical decision to decline a summer job offer to spend her summer interning in Uganda as an individual choice that unknowingly led to all of her future plans.  “If I had been too logical, I would have missed out on rafting on the Nile, seeing Wyclef Jean cry on a forklift, being abandoned with a group of nuns, having a baby named after me, and learning too many languages for one hand.”

She encourages current students to embrace the unexpected turns of life saying, “Who knows where you’ll end up, but at the very least, you’ll be able to appreciate getting there.”